Common Issues that Slow a Computer Down

There are a number of common reasons why even that latest computer will slow to a crawl through usage. Fortunately, there are simple steps to avoid this issue.

Getting Your Computer Up to Speed

One of the most common reasons that people turn to professional computer repair in Henderson is sluggish performance. While a hardware issue can cause this behavior, a lack of maintenance is usually the culprit.

Too Many Background Programs

Perhaps the most common reason that your computer doesn’t run as fast as it used to is a slew of programs running in the background. These background programs use CPU resources and take up memory, and if there are enough of them active, then you can definitely feel a performance hit. When you start an app or a process, its commands have to wait in a queue, which is why the computer is taking longer do what you tell it to. Viruses and malware can cause this is as well, and the problem can be overcome by uninstalling these programs or using virus removal software.

Limited Hard Drive Space

Many of the actions your computer performs require either read or write access to the hard drive. If the hard drive is nearly full, the computer has to work harder and will take longer every time it needs to read or write. If it needs many of these r/w operations, then that can result in sluggish performance. A general rule is that you want about 15 percent of a drive free, and if you have less than that, then you should consider a HDD upgrade or moving some of that data to the cloud.

Corrupted and Fragmented Hard Drive Space

Hard drive space can become corrupted or fragmented, and if that happens, the computer can perform as if you have no space left. There are a number of reasons why disk errors and other corruption can occur, including improper shutdown. Defragmentation builds up over time through normal usage. Windows has built-in tools, such as ScanDisk and Defrag to combat these issues, but if you’re new to this kind of computer troubleshooting, then a computer professional can make this process a lot easier.